Dublin

Andrew, Caleb, Jess, and I all went to Dublin, Ireland for three days the other week. It was the first time I was leaving Scotland so I was ready for a little adventure. From what I had heard from everyone going to Dublin it was going to be a really run trip. Our hostel was located in the Temple Bar district where there was many bars and attractions. The afternoon we arrived, we decided to walk around the city a bit to get our bearings. This just ended up in us finding a bar and ordering our first of many pints of Guinness. Temple Bar was such a cool place to walk around and hope in and out of bars. There was always people walking around on the cobble stone streets and chilling in plaza that was located in the middle of Temple Bar. While in the bars there would be live Irish folk music which was very entertaining and reminded me of Appalachian folk music.
The second day in Dublin we visited St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Guinness Factory. St. Patrick's Cathedral was amazing. It was a an awesome cathedral and people could enjoy looking at it from the little park that was next to it. The park was blooming with different colored flowers and had people laying in the grass and sitting on the park benches. From there we went to the Guinness Factory. A couple hundred feet away all you could smell was the fermentation process. The tour of the factory was sweet. They took you through how it is made, the origins of the factory/owner, how to properly taste Guinness, advertisements, how to pour the "perfect Guinness", and a free pint in the gravity bar on the 7th floor. One cool fact I learned was that Dublin is not home to the biggest Guinness factory, it is actually in Nigeria...yeah weird. I really enjoyed the different TV ads they had in the advertisement section and the gravity bar. The gravity bar was a circular bar on the 7th floor with glass windows and a 360 view of Dublin. You could see for miles all around Dublin and see the different monuments all around town. We all enjoyed our free pint and the sights of the city then headed out to see some more of the town.
On the the third day we met up with Michal who was meeting up with one of his friends the same we were there. It was cool that all of us could meet up and have fun in Dublin. Our third day was pretty chill. We walked through the business/shopping district of Dublin. The business district was at the far end of the river and had some massive glass buildings. Michal had not seen St. Patrick's Cathedral so we decided to get some fish and chips and eat in the park. It was a sunny warm day again and made for a pleasant afternoon of laying and joking around in the park. After our meal we walked to Phoenix Park which is the largest city park in Europe. In the middle of the park they had a monument that basically looked like a smaller Washington Monument. But it was a cool park and there were loads of people playing football outdoors. We walked back and checked out of our hostel. We headed for the airport and back to home (Edinburgh) which I was already missing. Dublin was awesome, I probably drank my weight in Guinness, saw the entire city, and experienced it all with my friends.